The battle against ticket touting has escalated after Ed Sheeran’s promoter, along with two MPs, was turned away from the London offices of ticket re-sale site Viagogo when they confronted the company with a letter and questions regarding their practices.

They had travelled to the London HQ of Viagogo’s parent company VGL, accompanied by disappointed and irate customers who claimed the company had ripped them off by adding huge fees to the face value of a ticket, as well as VAT. However, Conservative MP Nigel Adams and Labour MP Sharon Hodgson were both told the police would be called if they didn’t leave the premises.

The company is accused of hiking the prices of tickets by up to 34% through hidden fees that only become apparent when a customer clicks through the site to payment details.

Ed SheeranYou should only buy tickets for Ed Sheeran's world tour through official sellers

One music fan who had used Viagogo and joined the protest on Thursday (July 20th) told Sky News: “The website is set up to be really, really panicky ]with] lots of pop-ups coming up on the screen [saying] you’ve only got so many minutes left.”

“I put all my details in, put my card details in but there was no review screen. I pressed enter and the transaction completed and it came up with a total of £1,889. I literally burst into tears, I felt sick. Turned to my husband and said: ‘I’ve been had’.”

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Viagogo blames what it describes as a “glitch” in its systems after hundreds of other customers complained, but a great deal are yet to receive compensation and some have even been told to try to re-sell their tickets – through Viagogo!

Sheeran’s promoter, Stuart Galbraith, said that he and the singer were intent on clamping down on the re-selling of tickets, saying that tickets would only be valid for his current world tour if bought from the original purchaser.

“We're advising people don't buy tickets on Viagogo; every single ticket that they sell is not valid for our shows,” he told reporters. “We've also trawled our sales ledgers and we've cross referenced against known touts, identifying seven people who have bought tickets in bulk and we're in the process of cancelling those. It is starting to work - we're starting to see tickets disappear off Viagogo as we cancel them.”

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